Sports psychology is a science that studies the activities of the human psyche in the course of sports. It is believed that this section of life was opened in psychology in 1913, when this initiative was proposed by the International Olympic Committee. As a result, a congress was organized, and later, in the second half of the 20th century, the International Society for the Psychology of Sports (ESSP) was established. It is the year 1965 that is considered the year of official international recognition of this science.
Psychology of sports: specialist tasks
In the course of his work the sports psychologist deals with psychodiagnostics, group work and attracts the most modern and progressive methods, allowing to balance the athlete's condition and create favorable mental conditions for his self-development and victory.
As a rule, the psychology of a sports career requires the regular communication of an athlete with a psychologist, during which the following tasks are solved:
- Formation of the psychology of the winner in sport.
- Fighting the excitement before the start and increasing concentration.
- Help in critical, difficult for the athlete situations.
- Mastering the skill of managing emotions, the ability to pull themselves together.
- Forming the right motivation for regular training .
- Building the right relationship with the coach and the team.
- Clear goal setting and representation of the final desired result.
- Psychological readiness for competitions.
Nowadays, sports psychology has gained unprecedented popularity, and almost every serious team or sportsman has his own expert. However, sometimes this role is taken in the old manner by the coach.
Psychology of the winner in sport
Both adult and children's sports psychology require compulsory study of the section on the will to win. The psychology of the winner in sports is very important for everyone who aspires to achieve really meaningful results in the chosen field.
The athlete is always led by two parallel states: on the one hand, this is a passionate desire to win, on the other - the fear of losing. And if only the second is higher than the first, the results of the work of such an athlete are deplorable.
In preparation for the competition from the earliest stages of the athlete, it is important to take into account the fact that losing is just an indicator that you need to change the model of training.
Specialists say - each specialist has a special zone of confidence, which is fenced off by the upper and lower thresholds. In this case, the top indicates the maximum number of consecutive victories, followed by the fear of being a loser. This is a wrong attitude, in which a person does not believe that after 10 wins, he also easily achieves the 11th.
The lower threshold of confidence is determined by the maximum number of situations of successive losses, after which a persistent sense of insecurity arises. Simply put, after losing 5 times in a row, the athlete can mistakenly think that he will not be able to win the next time.
Accordingly, the smaller the number is determined by the upper and lower thresholds, the narrower the zone of confidence . The psychologist is obliged to work with the athlete over its expansion, because it is in a comfortable psychological state that the athlete has the greatest chance to defeat his opponents.
The tasks of the psychologist do not end there: it is important to teach the athlete the correct perception of both victory and loss, so that neither one nor the other does not interfere with his development and confidently go ahead, to conquer new peaks.